There are 16 characters and 18 Critical Arts currently in the game. Each character has at least one Critical Art (Ryu and Necalli have two). They are similar to Super Moves/Ultra Moves from Street Fighter 4. To activate them, your CA bar must be full. You can view the button combination for each character in the "Command List" when you pause the game. All characters are unlocked from the beginning. The following are the timestamps for all characters. They are shown in the same order as the in-game character selection.

1. Rashid - 0:05
2. R. Mika - 0:19
3. Chun-Li - 0:34
4. Ryu - 0:47
5. Ken - 1:02
6. Cammy - 1:16
7. Vega - 1:28
8. Necalli - 1:42
9. Laura - 2:07
10. Zangief - 2:18
11. Karin - 2:32
12. Nash - 2:47
13. M. Bison - 3:00
14. Birdie - 3:16
15. Dhalsim - 3:26
16. F.A.N.G. - 3:43